The silver lining for the Emerald Isle

Ireland first Grand Slam for 61 years was a welcome piece of good news on the Emerald Isle, and will hopefully be the spark of an upturn in fortunes for Europe's friendliest nation. The 12 months that have proceeded Ronan O' Gara's "ugly" drop-goal last night have tested the patience of even the happy-go-luck Irish.

Ireland's economy was once labelled a "Celtic Tiger" as their policy of slashing corporation tax encouraged multi-national companies to set up home on the banks of the Liffey leading to exponential economic growth.Indeed, Facebook is the latest American buck to be lured by the Irish mistress offering tax breaks. However, the Celtic Tiger is now looking increasingly toothless after being struck down by the double edged sword of a domestic housing crisis and a fundamental failure of the banking system. Indeed, Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan stated that Ireland was facing a worse recession than most countries in the world at a meeting in London last week. If UK ministers are successful in convincing the electorate that the recession is a problem from and and the fault of America, then surely Irish suits could utilize the same message, implicating the UK itself as culpuble middle man.

Not only is Ireland in times of recession, the spectre of sectarianism has reared its ugly head again after a happily dormant decade. The murders of 2 British soldiers and a member of the Police Service of Northen Ireland on consecutive days were a throw back to less progressive days and the universal condemnation that they were met with re-iterated the strength of the peace process rather than hinting at any potential crack.Indeed, that universal response appears to have strangled at birth any prospect of the image of a united Irish rugby team being used as an image to further an extreme Republican agenda, rather as a sign of unity in difficult times. I have written in a previous blog that sport is inextricably linked to politics and economics,but it can often be more of a buoyancy aid for national spirit rather than a solemn captain dedicated to going down with the ship.

Irish rugby's glorious spring of 2009 ,coupled with Giovanni Trappatoni's encouraging start as the Republic's manager could well be the tonic for a news agenda that has been as deflationary to morale as it has been to finances of our Celtic cousins. As the cracks in the infrastructure of the nation have appeared, the more traditional "craic" as been somewhat muted and the sooner this balance is redressed the better.